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NEWTON, ISAAC (b. Woolsthorpe, England,
25 December 1642; d. London, England, 20 March
1727), mathematics, dynamics, celestial mechanics,
astronomy, optics, natural philosophy.
the size of the acid particles and the “pores” between
the particles of metal. He did not, however, have a
sound operational definition of acid, but referred to
acids theoretically, in De natura acidorum, as those
substances “endued with a great Attractive Force;
in which Force their Activity consists.” He maintained
this definition in query 31, in which he further called
attention to the way in which metals may replace one
another in acid solutions and even “went so far as to
list the six common metals in the order in which they
would displace one another from a solution of aqua
fortis (strong nitric acid).”176
Alchemy, Prophecy, and Theology. Chronology and
History.
Newton is often alleged to have been a
mystic. That he was highly interested in alchemy
has been embarrassing to many students of his life
and work, while others delight in finding traces of
hermeticism in the father of the “age of reason.”
The entries in the Catalogue of the Portsmouth
Collection give no idea of the extent of the documents
in Newton's hand dealing with alchemy; these were
listed in the catalogue, but not then presented to
Cambridge University. Such information became
generally available only when the alchemical writings
were dispersed in 1936, in the Sotheby sale. The
catalogue of that sale gives the only full printed guide
to these materials, and estimates their bulk at some
650,000 words, almost all in Newton's hand.
A major problem in assessing Newton's alchemical
“writings” is that they are not, for the most part,
original compositions, nor even critical essays on his
readings (in the sense that the early “De gravitatione
et aequipondio fluidorum” is an essay based on his
reading in Descartes's Principia). It would be necessary
to know the whole corpus of the alchemical literature
to be able to declare that any paper in Newton's hand
is an original composition, rather than a series of
extracts or summaries.177
In a famous letter to Oldenburg (26 April 1676),
Newton offered an explanation of Boyle's presentations
of the “incalescence” of gold and mercury
(Philosophical Transactions, 9, no. 122 [1675], 515-533),
and presented an explanation based on the size
of the particles of matter and their mechanical action.
Newton particularly commended Boyle for having
concealed some major steps, since here was possibly
“an inlet into something more noble, and not to be
communicated without immense dammage to the
world if there be any verity in the Hermetick writers.”
He also gave some cautionary advice about alchemists,
even referring to a “true Hermetic Philosopher, whose
judgment (if there be any such)” might be of interest
and highly regarded, “there being other things beside
the transmutation of metalls (if those pretenders
bragg not) which none but they understand.” The
apparently positive declarations in Newton's letter
thus conflict with the doubts expressed in the two
parenthetical expressions.
Newton's studies of prophecy may possibly provide
a key to the method of his alchemical studies. His
major work on the subject is Observations upon the
Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John
(London, 1733). Here Newton was concerned with
“a figurative language” used by the prophets, which
he sought to decipher. Newton's text is a historical
exegesis, unmarked by any mystical short-circuiting
of the rational process or direct communication from
the godhead. He assumed an “analogy between the
world natural, and an empire or kingdom considered
as a world politic,” and concluded, for
example, that Daniel's prophecy of an “image
composed of four metals” and a stone that broke
“the four metals into pieces” referred to the four
nations successively ruling the earth (“viz. the peoples
of Babylonia, the Persians, the Greeks, and the
Romans”). The four nations are represented again in
the “four beasts.”
“The folly of interpreters,” Newton wrote, has been
“to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God
designed to make them Prophets.” This is, however,
far from God's intent, for God meant the prophecies
“not to gratify men's curiosities by enabling them to
foreknow things” but rather to stand as witnesses to
His providence when “after they were fulfilled, they
might be interpreted by events.” Surely, Newton
added, “the event of things predicted many ages
before, will then be a convincing argument that the
world is governed by providence.” (It may be noted
that this book also provided Newton with occasion to
refer to his favorite themes of “the corruption of
scripture” and the “corruption of Christianity.”)
The catalogue of the Sotheby sale states that
Newton's manuscript remains include some 1,300,000
words on biblical and theological subjects. These are
not particularly relevant to his scientific work and—for
the most part—might have been written by any
ordinary divinity student of that period, save for the
extent to which they show Newton's convinced anti-Trinitarian
monotheism or Unitarian Arianism. (His
tract Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, for
example, uses historical analysis to attack Trinitarian
doctrine.) “It is the temper of the hot and superstitious
part of mankind in matters of religion,”
Newton wrote, “ever to be fond of mysteries, and for
that reason to like best what they understand
least.”178
Typical of Newton's theological exercises is his
“Queries regarding the word homoousios.” The first
query asks “Whether Christ sent his apostles to